Microsoft is Working on 'Cortana' Personal Assistant to Rival Siri

Microsoft is working on a 'Cortana' personal assistant to rival Apple's Siri and Google Now, reports ZDNet.

Signs of Cortana were first spotted on a Lumia allegedly purchased on eBay. The phone was running a beta of the Windows Phone OS and had an unrecognized app installed called 'zCortanaApp'. The 'z' indicates a test build.

The name 'Cortana' comes from an artificially intelligent character in the Halo series of video games. Like in the game, Microsoft's assistant will be able to learn and adapt using machine-learning technology such as the 'Satori' knowledge repository that powers Bing, says ZDNet.

Cortana will be more than just an app that lets users interact with their phones more naturally using voice commands. Cortana is core to the makeover of the entire "shell" -- the core services and experience -- of the future versions of Windows Phone, Windows and the Xbox One operating systems, from what I've heard from my contacts.

In Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's strategy memo from July he hinted at "a family of devices powered by a service-enabled shell."

"Our UI will be deeply personalized, based on the advanced, almost magical, intelligence in our cloud that learns more and more over time about people and the world. Our shell will natively support all of our essential services, and will be great at responding seamlessly to what people ask for, and even anticipating what they need before they ask for it."

The shell will "broker information among our services to bring them together on our devices in ways that will enable richer and deeper app experiences," Ballmer said.

The 'Cortana' assistant likely won't appear until 2014-2016, according to Microsoft execs. Bing officials reportedly told CNET that Microsoft decided to wait until it had something revolutionary, rather than evolutionary.

Well, they said they were having a busy fall. I think maybe there will be more announcements from apple soon. Like a new iPad to start off. Maybe they put more technology out there like a physical tv or maybe even a third slightly wider iPhone. I'm sure they're improving on Siri too. I still think Cortana looks hot. Hopefully it will work so we can have a new technology. I'm sure others will improve on it as well. Just like they did with cell phones and smart phones to begin.

Listen dudes Siri was invented by a guy from Sweden who now moved to Chicago who was a genius and Steve Jobs was still alive back then and he was smart enough to recognize it as the next big thing because Jobs was/is genius. Microsoft is just copying shiat and they will try to get somewhere with this. Hopefully Windows 9 will have this feature and maybe Windows phone will be something. MAYBE

Apple didn't invent SIRI. Siri, used to be in the App Store years back before it was bought from the maker, then taken off the Store for another year and then slightly refined and ported to iPhone 4S. However, Apple opened the eyes of other people to spend big on developing voice recognition. Nuance had voice recognition years ago and patnered with BlackBerry. However, failure to improve that technology would make Microsoft cortana stand out if they can pull this off.
Anyway, by 2016, Apple's SIRI may have become more than intended cortana.